So, why should you play Maelstrom Wanderer? Uh, because he’s awesome, and you’re awesome too. Big aggro creature that gets in the red zone? Check. Cool ability? Double-check. Fun to abuse? Triple-check that, dawg! “But cryogen,” you ask, “if he’s so much fun, why doesn’t everyone play him?” Well, my astute reader, it’s simple. PEOPLE DON’T LIKE FUN. (This may or may not be true). The real reason is that Wanderer is up against some stiff competition in the form of Animar, Soul of Elements, and Riku of Two Reflections. Plus, a lot of the builds tend to rely on using Scroll Rack and similar to take away the random nature of cascade, turning him from a chaotic funbag of, um, fun, to a streamlined, linear ramp ramp ramp cascade win yawnfest. Hey, that’s ok, because he’s fun to play no matter how you like your cascade.

This deck was conceived as soon as the Planechase 2012 decks came out, and despite changes here and there, the concept has stayed the same. I’ve been a fan of Planechase and loved it so much that I bought all four PC2012 decks as soon as they came out. I wanted a way to add that randomness to regular EDH because I didn’t always have a group of people that liked Planechase, and Maelstrom Wanderer was a banner screaming BUILD MEEEEEEEE!!!!! How could I say no to a face like that? I needed chaos, but more than just chaos, I needed an ethos:

Even chaos has rules:

Push the game forward, not back. Wizards had the philosophy with PC2012 of using effects that would progress the game, not slow it down.

No knowing what happens next. The excitement of Planechase is peeling the next plane and seeing what happens. To emulate this I use cascade and random effects as much as possible, and most importantly, I don’t run any tutors (to dig through my library or an opponent’s), deck manipulation effects to stack things in my favor, or even Future Sight effects. (This is strictly for deck-building. Once the game begins I’ll gladly use my opponent’s resources to get tutors.)

Seven or less. In order to keep the deck truly random, every card in the deck (outside land, obviously) is fair game off of a Wanderer cascade. I push this by trying to keep the number of dead cascades to a minimum.

Mix the good with the bad. Good and bad effects keep the thrill of suspense active, but generally the game should go forward and not grind to a halt because people can’t attack, untap lands, cast spells, etc.

Have fun.When If the deck wins, leave the players laughing, not frowning.

Ain’t Nobody Got Time Fo Dat!
There are a lot of cards that I intentionally don’t consider. Cards like Scroll Rack and Soothsaying would set up the top of my library and make every cascade profitable. With my mana base, I could Ruination or Back to Basics all the way to the bank, and even simple tutors like Rampant Growth would smooth out clunky draws. Those are all good cards, and there’s nothing wrong with running them, but that’s the path to the dark side. Lastly, because Wanderer cost 8, everything in the deck is 7cmc or less so everything but the land is fair game for his cascade (sorry, Warp World).

Ξ A Roadmap to Random Ξ

Since we’re playing Planechase even when your opponents aren’t, this deck has four types of cards: the Multiverse, Planes, Phenomenon, and Utility. The Multiverse is represented by your lands. You can’t see it, but each land is from a different set, to help the feel of being a Planeswalker. The Planes are represented by permanents that create a lasting effect on either me or the whole field. Instants, sorceries, and ETB effects are the Phenomenon, and the miscellaneous remainder of the deck makes up the utility cards. Much like playing Planechase when each player has their own set of planes, the way to unbalance the effects is to build around my effects (such as running basic lands and punish people for playing non-basics).

Ok, so that’s not technically accurate. We have a strategy, but it just isn’t supposed to be apparent. First off, you need mana. Since you’re not going to get help from duals and fetches, the lands and mana rocks in your opening grip really set the stage for what’s going to happen later on. Once you’ve got some mana, let everyone know you’re running with chaos by casting the random spells. If you get Possibility Storm, you play that bad boy as soon as you can. At this stage of the game you’re trying to do three things: let your opponents know you’re not a threat (which let’s be honest with ourselves, you’re not), drawing into Psychosis Crawler, or ramping into Wanderer. Now, if you found Psychosis Crawler, you want to start drawing ALL the cards. If that fails, you have to try to get in there with combat damage, either from the Wanderer itself, or Intet, the Dreamer.

Note: Maelstrom Wander has built up quite the reputation against him, so if you’re in an unfamiliar group, there’s a good chance you’re going to get gunned for. There’s three options: 1. Take your beats knowing that Wanderer usually deserves them (yes, even this deck sometimes). 2. Hurry up and play the non-stereotypical Wanderer cards so they’ll see it’s not a generic Wanderer deck (hint: most of the cards in the deck). 3. Play politics and point out the more threatening generals. Failing all that, you can just whine, plead, and complain until your opponents comply out of disgust.

Time Warp: You wouldn’t think that with only having one time magic spell I could chain extra turns, but using Erratic Portal, Eternal Witness, Rite of Replication, and other peoples spells, there’s been plenty of times when I’ve chained 3+ turns in a row. Capitalize your extra turns with combat damage, bouncing Wanderer for a bunch of cascades, or even just stabilizing.

Lastly, I feel it bears mentioning about the synergy between Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and Possibility Storm. This is similar to the Knowledge Pool lock, because with these two in play, every time your opponents cast a spell from their hand, Storm triggers and exiles it, then attempts to cast another spell. However, the stack isn’t empty, so Teferi prevents them from casting it. It’s not a hard lock, similar to Knowledge Pool, but it is irritating all the same. I’ve debated adding Teferi to my list, but this is meant to be a fun goof-off deck. Just be aware that this is an efficient win condition, should you choose to add it to your deck.

Ξ These Boots Were Made for (Planes)Walking Ξ

So, let’s break down the deck and talk about each card individually. This deck style is so much fun because MtG has always been full of off-the-wall effects for Timmy, and the Spike in you is just aching to abuse them.

Lands

Alchemist’s Refuge – Being able to cast everything at instant speed gives you more flexibility

Teferi’s Puzzle Box – Turbo card draw to dig for Psychosis Crawler, and hand disruption for your opponents. Sometimes they like it, so the Box isn’t always good for us. (Luckily, we’re not really trying to win.)

Peregrine Drake – A free guy with evasion when you cast it, and if I can cascade into it then I get some extra mana for later on. The absolute nuts is to cascade into it with Wanderer and have the Sword in play.

Thoughts: I don’t know how I missed Mass Polymorph before, but it’s got perfect flavor for the theme of the deck, and I needed an excuse to pull GE for another deck. Conscripts came out because on its own the card isn’t very spectacular, and AoZ can be game-breaking.

Thoughts: I’ve decided that in order to enhance the theme of the deck I want to minimize the redundant effects. So out came Crystal Shard, Wheel of Fortune, and Stitch in Time. Bloodbraid is a fun cascade, but I don’t run many 3 and under cards that I want to cascade into, and Reiterate can be a dead cascade. This let me bring Rites back (which is on theme as a fun plane for players) and Into the Wilds for more ramp. Uyo is the replacement for Reiterate, and I’m going to test Kiki/Scripts out.

Thoughts: Chimera is a perfect card for the deck, so naturally Path has to join it. Guided Passage is a tutor that bypasses my no tutor rule, and I realized that Oracle actually breaks my rule of not knowing what happens next.

Thoughts: The nonbasics offer a lot of value that we sacrifice elsewhere, so it’s worth the minimal risk. Mind’s Desire is a card that I pretty much only want to cast off a cascade or Possibility Storm, and any other time it rarely pans out, so I swapped it for a really good card.

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9/24/13
I don’t know why I decided to track the online deck. Back to paper, but I’m only listing the actual changes to the deck, not the reordering from online to paper.

Thoughts: Riftsweeper just didn’t work. I hardly ever had anything in exile that I wanted to get back, and even if I did, getting it shuffled into my library didn’t make a difference in the rest of the game.

Thoughts: The dragon didn’t stack up as hoped, so I swapped it out for another dragon. Aperture is a cool effect, but when everything in the deck cost 7 or less, I usually hit something cheaper. Green is the most desirable color in the first couple of turns, and mana isn’t a problem (just the colors), so I’m retesting Riftsweeper. Wheel of Fortune is good, but I’m trying not to rely solely on Psychosis Crawler, and Reiterate is really good when I don’t whiff with cascade.

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5/21/13
In my ever-continuing quest to cut cards that I just don’t want to cast when they’re in my hand, I’ve made another round of changes.

Thoughts: Sphinx was always just a card I threw in without a real purpose. Pally was such an easy swap, especially since I can’t go infinite using my own deck. Psychic Battle is a card I’ve drawn and discarded numerous times because I just didn’t want to cast it, so it seems like a natural removal.

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5/19/13
Bit the bullet and built the deck online, so until I feel a compelling need to track the paper deck (which will realistically see less play), I’m going to track the online version for now.

Thoughts: My mana screw was pretty rough, so I upped the count. Satchel is good, so it’s a take it or leave it card right now. It may come back at some point. Shardless is simply a card which I can’t justifying buying online.

Thoughts: I don’t really like group hug cards like Braids, because I just can’t keep up, and the Djinn had the effect I was looking for, but a high mana cost. Loaming Shaman and Vortex seemed like good ideas at the time, but didn’t pan out. Testing out Mindclaw, adding Jace for more card draw, and Teferi and Capsize are for disruption.

I like where you guys are thinking. I know I have a Mindclaw Shaman, should have another E-Wit if I haven't used all of them, and may have Riftsweeper. I love the idea that if I cascade into Riftsweeper I could be forced to un exile an opponents card. I know I don't have Guided Passage, because I've debated on that card in general for a while.

Played with the deck in my league today and seemed to be fun to play with. Now my question is, how can I tune it to make it stronger? I've got a Riftsweeper, Signets, and cycling lands on the way, so I have a little tweaking to do already. I also got a Telemin Performance after seeing it run today. Keep in mind, I refuse to alter the core values of the deck, which are:

1. No tutors
2. No deck manipulation
3. Random is the name of the game when at all possible
4. Random global effects should push the game forward, not backwards (no 'geddons, no lockdowns, etc.)

You should work on your landbase a little. I know you're only running basics, but that doesn't mean you need to have shoddy color fixing. 12 forests with only 11 green symbols (in casting costs) whereas you have 34 red symbols with the same amount of lands. I would cut two forests in lieu of an island and a mountain. With only basics and no ramp I'd be hesitant to cut more as you don't want to get locked out of green. I'd also actually consider upping the land count to 40 since you have no ramp whatsoever and you want to be able to consistently get up to 8, 10, then 12 to continuously cast your general.

You should work on your landbase a little. I know you're only running basics, but that doesn't mean you need to have shoddy color fixing. 12 forests with only 11 green symbols (in casting costs) whereas you have 34 red symbols with the same amount of lands. I would cut two forests in lieu of an island and a mountain. With only basics and no ramp I'd be hesitant to cut more as you don't want to get locked out of green. I'd also actually consider upping the land count to 40 since you have no ramp whatsoever and you want to be able to consistently get up to 8, 10, then 12 to continuously cast your general.

Mana isn't that much of a problem, although I will certainly take to heart the suggestion to fix the actual proportions. Druidic Satchel is an all-star (I activated it six times today and hit land four of them).

On the topic of mana, what are your thoughts on Pristine Talisman? I know it taps for colorless, but with the few mass damage effects that I run which hurt me as well, this could help soak up some of it. Is it worth a slot? Should I be worried about this? Is there something better I could use to this effect?

You should work on your landbase a little. I know you're only running basics, but that doesn't mean you need to have shoddy color fixing. 12 forests with only 11 green symbols (in casting costs) whereas you have 34 red symbols with the same amount of lands. I would cut two forests in lieu of an island and a mountain. With only basics and no ramp I'd be hesitant to cut more as you don't want to get locked out of green.

+1

Look to balance the basics to reflect the CC needs of the deck. I love Primal Order in this deck list. Any chance for B2B or Blood Moon? The Blood Moon would create non-basic mountains to still trigger the Primal Order.

Look to balance the basics to reflect the CC needs of the deck. I love Primal Order in this deck list. Any chance for B2B or Blood Moon? The Blood Moon would create non-basic mountains to still trigger the Primal Order.

I don't own Back to Basics, but I'm sort of filling that space with Tsabo's Web. The issue I have with B2B and Blood Moon is that they go against my desire to avoid griefing and slowing the game. Basically, I'd be punishing people for using dual lands. with the Web, it just prevents people from using utility lands.

I don't own Back to Basics, but I'm sort of filling that space with Tsabo's Web. The issue I have with B2B and Blood Moon is that they go against my desire to avoid griefing and slowing the game. Basically, I'd be punishing people for using dual lands. with the Web, it just prevents people from using utility lands.

I've really been enjoying the satchel. I feel like you could fine some sort of lifelink creature / enchantment to soak up the damage better than the talisman. Wurmcoil Engine for example gives six turns worth of activating the talisman in just one swing and bounces back from wraths.

I've really been enjoying the satchel. I feel like you could fine some sort of lifelink creature / enchantment to soak up the damage better than the talisman. Wurmcoil Engine for example gives six turns worth of activating the talisman in just one swing and bounces back from wraths.

Wurmcoil's a great card and all, but bleh. It's just a dumb beater. There's got to be a way to do better. *scrolls Gatherer* Maybe Engulfing Slagwurm? It would deter attackers at least. Lifegift? Paradise Plume is a better Talisman.

I think I like the slagwurm the most of the three options. Though you're not guaranteed to destroy a creature and gain life, whereas all wurmcoil has to do is be dumb beats. And again he survives a death then gives you two more durdles to block / deter attackers with and another lifegain outlet. I ran paradise plume in an izzet storm deck and didn't gain a ton from it, the cmc was just too high for me to warrant. In green it might be different, but you also aren't ramping.

Remand is a fairly safe counterspell. You 'counter' maelstrom wanderer and draw a card, casting him again the next turn for his base cost. Or you can use it to interrupt a combo or prevent a craterhoof from ending the game.

Remand is a fairly safe counterspell. You 'counter' maelstrom wanderer and draw a card, casting him again the next turn for his base cost. Or you can use it to interrupt a combo or prevent a craterhoof from ending the game.

I like the interaction that Remand has with MSW, but I hate the idea of not actually countering a spell, merely making them wait another turn to cast it. The extra card is nice though. Dunno, if I can find one I'll probably give it a whirl.